


Middle-Earth

by lilolilyrae



Series: The 666 Words Ineffable Husbands Series [63]
Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale's Bookshop (Good Omens), Aziraphale-centric (Good Omens), Books, Fluff, Other, Post-Almost Apocalypse (Good Omens), Reading
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:18:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22120144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilolilyrae/pseuds/lilolilyrae
Summary: Books are an angel's favorite home.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: The 666 Words Ineffable Husbands Series [63]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1393198
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38
Collections: 666 Ineffable Husbands





	Middle-Earth

**Author's Note:**

> Title because of that one quote from a book or film (pLEasE tell me if you know the actual quote and origin, it's driving me nuts), about being able to go to -insert list of different cities & 'middle-eath'- without ever having to leave the room. I love that quote. My memory is shite.

Many people like books.

Aziraphle loves them more than most- and for a lot of reasons.

Quite some of these reasons are practical, objective: books are stored knowledge, history, science and fiction alike. They transport knowledge through time, the written word working far better than stories that are passed on in spoken tales.

They are practical- usually small enough to carry around, flat enough to store a lot of them next to one another, durable enough to out-last a (human) lifetime.

Yes, books are important for sure.

But then, wouldn't other, more modern means of storage be just as meaningful? Yes, books don't need to be charged and can't be hacked, but there are pros and cons for both the paper and electronical storage devices, after all.

No, books are more meaningful to the angel because those objective reasons are not the main reasons for Aziraphale to love books.

If he were still trying to hide his true feelings, he could say that he loves books because as an angel, he loves humanity, and the stories show how great humans are, how creative, inventive, what poets they can be-

Mind you, none of this is actually untrue, but really, Aziraphle just loves to _read_.

He loves that feeling of getting lost in a story, not knowing anything but this fantasy world until he puts the book back down- and then taking a minute or an hour or, on one memorable occasion, a year, to bask in the feelings the story has given him.

Reading a good book for the first time is so wonderful, enthralling, surprising in the best ways- sometimes, he wishes he could read some of his favorites for the first time _again_. 

But there are so many new books, too! Well, new to him, he tends to be a little behind the times in everything he does, but can you really blame him? His life centres around those stories, humans keep writing books, and Aziraphale just cannot possibly keep up! Recently, of course, his life started to centre more around a certain demon, and he tries to stay in the present for them... But books will still never not be a part of his life, he knows this.

Aziraphale collects books, too- everybody needs a hobby, after all, and he has the time to look after frail antiques, the long enough lifespan to actually complete collections of rare first-editions, and he was already around to meet authors when they were alive so he could get the books signed. But it's not just a hobby for him- he also loves how he can bring books with him and immediately feel a little at home seeing them on a shelf. It's not without reason that his first permanent home had to be a bookshop- he hadn't needed to think about it at all.

Aziraphale himself writes at times, too, poetry and diaries and sentences in languages no humans alive nowadays can read. He writes in beautiful cursive and in inillegible scribbles, with quills and inkwells and with fountain pens... Never to share with anyone (although he might share some of his poems with Crowley some day), simply for the pleasure of creating. But more still than writing or collecting, he prefers to read. 

Sometimes, the angel is sad to know that he never will have read _all_ the books in existence, immortal or not... Humanity keeps existing (thankfully!) and therefore keeps creating, and if humanity didn't exist, books probably wouldn't either, so he couldn't even catch up. Not that he wants for humans to stop writing just so he could catch up, no, he just wants to read it all!

On the other hand- not being able to catch up means that there will always be a supply of new stories! And Aziraphle does so love the stories.

He also loves the smell of books, especially the smell of well taken care of antiques- parchment, paper, glue-

And

Most importantly

The indescribable smell of memories.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked it be so kind and let me know, here or on tumblr:  
> @lilolilyr is my fandom chaos blog and  
> @lilolilyrae is my personal main :) 
> 
> Leave a comment if you want me to let you know when I post another part other series!
> 
> Prompts are open!


End file.
